Jeff Mitchell: City should not criminalize homelessness

Regular readers of this column know that I have been reporting, writing and opining about Salinas’ growing homelessness crisis for several years now.

I have sharply criticized the County of Monterey’s glacial, bureaucratically entrenched response to the issue while praising those individuals, entities and organizations that have tried to bring about some real solutions.

For instance, I have said repeatedly in this space what a refreshing display of leadership Mayor Joe Gunter has shown in his advocacy for the development and operation of a mostly city-sponsored cold weather shelter.

You can add to that the city’s new and coming partnership with the Dorothy’s Place people to stand up and run a new public health intake center (plus 24 hour bathrooms and showers – finally) on Lake Street.

We all know that, with the exception of our largest cities, municipal governments in America largely stay out of the business of being social services providers. This is true mostly because city governments simply don’t have the money or staff capacity to attack the problem. And although cities end up taking the brunt of the problem, they are forced to rely on the county, state and feds for funding.

You’ll recall earlier this year that after I pointed out the County of Monterey’s lackluster response to homelessness, its first reaction was to order up a feel good review of all the money it is throwing at the problem.

What it didn’t do was to show how any real political or administrative leadership was being applied from the Board of Supervisors or administrative staff. Moreover, when I inquired how much this PR effort cost the county, officials declined to respond.

But while the county continues to posture (and Johnny-come-lately politicos and out-of-town lawyers increasingly glomb onto the issue), the ranks of the homeless continue to grow in Salinas – the county’s largest city and the county seat.

That’s why I have a big problem with the city’s recently adopted anti-camping ordinance.

In fact, I continue to have issues with the way the city has conducted its so-called “sweeps” of the Chinatown area.

Both approaches are inhumane and cosmetic at best.

Moreover, the anti-camping ordinance and the sweeps fly in the face of Salinas’ nascent efforts to provide hands-on assistance to our homeless neighbors. And make no mistake, these are indeed our people – they’re Salinans through and through and they deserve our help and support. Remember, our community is only as strong as its weakest, most vulnerable members.

I could understand implementing such an ordinance if the city knew that adequate, free, long-term housing for the homeless was being made available. (It’s not.) Though homelessness in some parts of the county has gone down, it has gone up 63 percent in Salinas since 2013 according to recent on-the-ground estiments. To me, that represents a true local humanitarian crisis equal (on a proportional scale) to anything we’re seeing in the Third World.

Short of actually guaranteeing that the aforementioned housing programs are in place first, the city’s anti-camping ordinance in effect, criminalizes homelessness and is counter-intuitive to its praiseworthy recent actions with the cold weather shelter and the Lake Street health center (to open, I understand, sometime in April). For this reason I hope City Council will consider suspending implementation of the ordinance for the foreseeable future. It’s just not the right thing to do at this time.

We cannot and should not try to sweep homelessness in Salinas under the rug and unless greatly modified or suspended, this is exactly what the anti-camping ordinance would do.

City Council is scheduled to consider approving contract with a private company to help enforce this ordinance at its meeting Tuesday.

Here’s your chance to let the council know what you think – face to face.

Hats off to the Salinas American Legion

Hope everyone is enjoying the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Though they certainly weren’t the only group offering a free Thanksgiving Day dinner, I want to publicly acknowledge the great efforts of Salinas’ own American Legion Post 31.

(Yes, these are the very same folks who put on our great Veterans Day Parade – already a great new Salinas tradition.) According to spokesman Tony Virrueta, the post has been providing the holiday meal now for more than 20 years.

On Thursday the post fed more than 600 Salinas families a delicious holiday meal, complete with all the trimmings. Equally as important the post volunteers served up a whole bunch of smiles and holiday cheer to Salinans who could use the encouragement and support.

Bravo, folks, bravo!

Civic Chronicles columnist Jeff Mitchell covers politics, government and life in the Salinas Valley on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Reach him at 831-754-4281 or email him at jemitchell@thecalifornian.com